REARING ANIMALS AND MAKING COLLECTIONS 463 



of the collector, with any particular information which 

 will make it more instructive. If such special data are 

 too voluminous for a label, they should be written in a 

 general note-book called "Notes on Collections" (kept 

 in the schoolroom with the collection), the specimen and 

 corresponding data being given a common number so that 

 their association may be recognized. In the following 

 paragraphs are given brief directions for catching, pinning 

 up, and caring for insects, 

 for making skins of birds 

 and mammals, and for 

 the alcoholic preservation 

 of other kinds of animals. 

 Insects. For catching 

 insects there are needed 

 a net, a killing-bottle, a 

 few small vials of alcohol, 

 and a few small boxes to 

 carry home live speci- 

 mens, cocoons, galls, etc. 

 For preparing and pre- 

 serving the insects there 

 are needed insect-pins, 



FIG. 169. Insect killing-bottle; cyanide 

 of potassium at bottom, covered with 

 plaster of Paris. (From Jenkins and 

 Kellogg.) 



cork- or pith-lined drawers 

 or boxes, and small wide- 

 mouthed bottles of alco- 

 hol. 



The net, about 2 feet deep, tapering and rounded at 

 its lower end, is made of cheesecloth or bobinet (not 

 mosquito-netting, which is too frail), attached to a ring, one 

 foot in diameter, of No. 3 galvanized iron wire, which in 

 turn is fitted into a light wooden or cane handle about 

 three and a half feet long. 



The killing-bottle (fig. 169) is prepared by putting a few 

 small lumps (about a teaspoonful) of cyanide of potassium 



